Lea Seidl - Silver Dancer
Painting
1924 (painted)
1924 (painted)
| Artist/Maker |
This is a portrait of the Austrian actress and singer Lea Seidl, born in Vienna in 1895. Her birth name was Caroline Mayrseidl. She made her stage debut in her home city in 1917 as Janku in Franz Lehar's operetta Rastelbinder, or, The Tinker. She appeared in Zurich in 1919-1920 and was in Berlin in the 1920s, where, in 1928, she appeared in revue and recorded: ‘Ich Bin die Marie von Der Haller Revue’ with the Dajos Dajos Béla dance band. She emigrated to London in 1930, making her West End debut in the title role of Franz Lehar’s Fredericaat the Palace Theatre and recording two of her songs in the show ‘Why Did You Kiss My Heart Awake?’ and ‘I Love Him So’ with the Palace Orchestra on a Columbia label 78rpm record. In 1931 she took over from Camilla Spiro as Josepha Vogelhuber, the proprietress of The White Horse Inn in the original London production of the hugely successful operetta The White Horse Inn at the Coliseum Theatre, and was featured in that role on the cover of the January 1932 edition of Theatre World. She starred as Catherine the Great in the 1949 production of The Czarina at the Alhambra, Glasgow, and appeared in television and film, playing roles including Fraulein Schneider in I Am a Camera (1955), and Countess Rostov in War and Peace (1956). She became a British subject, dying in London in January 1987.
The portrait by the Hungarian born painter Felix Albrecht Harta (1884-1967) was exhibited in the March 1924 Collective Portrait Exhibition at the Vienna Künstlerhaus, listed as 1924 WV717 Lea Seidl ‘Silberne Tanzerin’ (Silver Dancer).
The portrait by the Hungarian born painter Felix Albrecht Harta (1884-1967) was exhibited in the March 1924 Collective Portrait Exhibition at the Vienna Künstlerhaus, listed as 1924 WV717 Lea Seidl ‘Silberne Tanzerin’ (Silver Dancer).
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Lea Seidl - Silver Dancer (assigned by artist) |
| Materials and techniques | Oil on canvas |
| Brief description | Portrait of Lea Seidl (1895-1987) entitled 'Lea Seidl - Silver Dancer'. Oil on canvas, 1924, by Felix Albrecht Harta (1884-1967) |
| Physical description | Oil portrait of Lea Seidl. Red-headed female figure, three-quarter length, her head turned to viewer's right. She wears a silver evening dress with a silver and turquoise cape, and stands in front of a sketchy townscape with the dome of a cathedral to right. Signed. |
| Dimensions |
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| Gallery label |
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| Object history | Throughout his career Felix Albrecht Harta (1884-1967) kept a catalogue of his works. This painting was listed as 1924 WV717 Lea Seidl. Its first owners, the Erstbesitz family, were located in Berlin. The dimensions were listed as 100 x 90. In March 1924 the painting was exhibited in the March Collective Portrait Exhibition at the Künstlerhaus in Vienna. The entry book records the painting as no.1411, titled Lea Seidl "Silberne Tanzerin" (Silver Dancer). Harta also painted another oil painting of the same woman wearing a fur coat (source: Einluf Buch der Kunstwerke 1924. Genössenschaft der Bildenden Künstler Wiens. Künstlerhaus, I Karlsplatz). An anonymous reviewer described the artist as the premier portraitist of the women of Viennese high society ("Der Maler Wiener Frauen", Die Stunde, 20 March 1924, p.5). The background of the painting was identified by Geoffrey Ashton (Catalogue of Paintings at the Theatre Museum, London, ed. James Fowler, London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1992) as Venice, but Larry Heller, the artist's grandson who researched the artist for the online catalogue www.faharta.com, suggests that it is the Bobili Gardens in Florence with a view of the Duomo. Harta's catalogue lists works drawn in 1924-25 in Florence and Rome. He exhibited at the Biennale Romana in 1925, but mostly with caricatures (see Edith K. Baumgartner, unpublished dissertation F.A. Harta, University of Salzburg, 1991, Vol. 1, p.90). |
| Subject depicted | |
| Summary | This is a portrait of the Austrian actress and singer Lea Seidl, born in Vienna in 1895. Her birth name was Caroline Mayrseidl. She made her stage debut in her home city in 1917 as Janku in Franz Lehar's operetta Rastelbinder, or, The Tinker. She appeared in Zurich in 1919-1920 and was in Berlin in the 1920s, where, in 1928, she appeared in revue and recorded: ‘Ich Bin die Marie von Der Haller Revue’ with the Dajos Dajos Béla dance band. She emigrated to London in 1930, making her West End debut in the title role of Franz Lehar’s Fredericaat the Palace Theatre and recording two of her songs in the show ‘Why Did You Kiss My Heart Awake?’ and ‘I Love Him So’ with the Palace Orchestra on a Columbia label 78rpm record. In 1931 she took over from Camilla Spiro as Josepha Vogelhuber, the proprietress of The White Horse Inn in the original London production of the hugely successful operetta The White Horse Inn at the Coliseum Theatre, and was featured in that role on the cover of the January 1932 edition of Theatre World. She starred as Catherine the Great in the 1949 production of The Czarina at the Alhambra, Glasgow, and appeared in television and film, playing roles including Fraulein Schneider in I Am a Camera (1955), and Countess Rostov in War and Peace (1956). She became a British subject, dying in London in January 1987. The portrait by the Hungarian born painter Felix Albrecht Harta (1884-1967) was exhibited in the March 1924 Collective Portrait Exhibition at the Vienna Künstlerhaus, listed as 1924 WV717 Lea Seidl ‘Silberne Tanzerin’ (Silver Dancer). |
| Bibliographic reference | Ashton, Geoffrey. Catalogue of Paintings at the Theatre Museum, London. ed. James Fowler, London : Victoria and Albert Museum, 1992. 224p. ill. ISBN 1851771026 |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | S.810-1991 |
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| Record created | November 11, 2003 |
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